[AdmiralAsshat]

IIRC (struggling to find a source), Thomas Lipton was the guy who formalized the tea-leaf grading process for Western Europe. The "legend" goes that back in the day, all of the imported tea would be dumped onto the floor of a particular room. The first round of tea producers would come and extract the full, unbroken tea leaves for top-shelf tea. The next round of producers would extract the broken leaves for mid-grade tea. On and on.

Finally, what was left would be the tea leaves that had been so crushed, broken, or pulverized that they were little more than a tea dust. This is what Lipton would then sweep up to make Lipton tea.

Which is to say, Lipton knew what he was doing. He went for the cheapest stuff possible. And that's what you get.

[Spivak]

I guess my question as a non-serious tea drinker is whether the dust actually makes for worse tea or is just ugly.

[AdmiralAsshat]

Well, if you're willing to spend $5-10 to find out for yourself, you can try this experiment:

1) Buy a box of Twinings* tea bags from your neighborhood grocery store (https://www.amazon.com/Twinings-Earl-Grey-Tea-Bags/dp/B000R9...).

2) Buy the same flavor of Twinings tea from your neighborhood grocery store in loose-leaf form (https://www.amazon.com/Twinings-London-Earl-Loose-Ounces/dp/...).

3) Boil a kettle of water and prepare a mug of each. Note the varying instructions: the teabag is only recommended to steep for about two minutes, because the tea dust is comprised of smaller particles and will overextract if left alone too long, while the loose leaf tea calls for about 4 minutes of steeping.

4) Taste and decide for yourself whether you feel there is a meaningful difference between the two. If not, then great! You can continue to buy the more convenient option without feeling like you're being deprived somehow.

* I'm sure there are other brands, but Twinings was the only one off the top of my head that sells both teabags and loose-leaf of the same flavor and can be found in most grocery stores.

[Bartweiss]

There's a taste difference on two levels.

First, the higher surface area brews differently - faster, which is convenient, but changes the ratios of what's infused. That's not inherently bad, matcha is green tea specifically prepared to be served that way, but it's usually detrimental to a tea intended for larger leaf brewing.

Second, sitting around powdered in paper sachets means far more air exposure. This is basically the same type of difference as fresh-ground and powdered coffee, which isn't hard to taste.

If you drink tea with milk and sugar, I'm not sure it matters. But for straight tea, it matters at least as much as for straight coffee.

[valarauko]

Indian chais are commonly made in most Indian homes with dust tea. It's cheap, produces a very strong cup, which can stand up to the milk, sugar, and spices. Chai made with long leaf teas is just awful.

I wouldn't use a dust or CTC tea if I want to drink the tea straight, though. Different types of tea for different uses.

[Bartweiss]

Yep, that makes a lot of sense. I suppose if cost were no object at all, you could approach it like matcha: de-vein and powder long leaves to get a strong, high-grade brew that doesn't have time to oxidize. But I'm not even sure it would be better, since Indian chai isn't spiced with that process in mind.

I was going to say I've had chais made with long leaf tea, but I realize those were middle eastern versions that are only spiced with a bit of cardamom. I'm sure it's not an accident that the recipe has a lot less spice where long leaves are in use, but I'd love to know how that difference came to be.

Now I want a history of chai!

[valarauko]

There is a long history of spiced drinks in India, drunk for their medicinal value. Most Indian kids have grown up drinking turmeric milk for sore throats, and strong decoctions of pepper, holy basil, and dried ginger for congestions.

From what I can ascertain, Indian Chais appeared in the early 1900s, when British owned tea estates tried to drum up local business among Indians. The best quality teas were exported, though the teas available to Indians were still expensive. Local tea vendors boosted the flavour with spices, and eventually milk.

In the most common variety of masala chai you'll find in India, lots of freshly grated ginger is boiled in water, before adding tea leaves and finally milk. The milk must come last, since raw ginger will split milk. We have different spice blends for different times of the year. We generally avoid masala chais in the hot summers. Ginger chai is great for the rainy season, along with some piping hot fritters. Cardamom and pepper are for the cold winter months.

In Kashmir, where the cuisine is much milder, you'll find kahwah, made from powdered green tea, along with cardamom and saffron.

[inimino]

Yes. It's oxidized and stale. It's like buying cheese in a block from a refrigerator or something that was grated three months ago and put on a shelf.